wonder...

i was recently asked to write a text about collecting, that will be published in a few weeks. a few things came up, specifically a revisiting of walter benjamin's text on book collecting and translation, which i hadn't read since undergraduate school. i would highly recommend re-reading illuminations to anyone and everyone who reads this blog. i generally prefer the dentist to theory, but benjamin's writing is pretty darn sublime, and he absolutely nails the complexities of being a collector. i'll most likely post some quotes by him here at some point.

the other thing is that i remember the exact moment and the exact object that began my collecting trajectory through life. you can see it above. i'll post a link to the article when it runs; but suffice to say in 1972 i saw baseball cards for the first time, and became obsessed with this one. it wasn't the player, it was the picture, and i think the following quote by henry miller (about film!) sums up what i seek in objects (as well as the things that i make)...

"exhausted by longing, the spirit of man strives perpetually to surrender its burden through wonder... wonder expands the inner orb, making it wax like a golden moon. at the full, the darkest recesses of our soul are illuminated."

h. miller, art in cinema